As different as they are, these public radio outposts share a carefully tuned appropriateness of structure. There’s the young two-transmitter operation on the Massachusetts shore. Dotted along Alaska’s southeastern panhandle, there are five little stations that survived the contraction of the state’s oil economy. And there are nearly 30 outlets of Minnesota Public Radio that connect small outstate burgs with the rich resources of a big state and the Twin Cities. Station operators say their structures handle functions locally that should be done locally, while relying on parent or sister stations to do other jobs that benefit from economies of scale.

Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life, appeared on Talk of the Nation this week to discuss his show’s unique Warner Bros. deal.

Neal Conan is No. 1–and David Brancaccio is dead last. At least in San Francisco Ultimate Frisbee league match-ups, where teams have taken the names of public radio personalities. Team members appeared on Talk of the Nation this week.

The Car Talk brothers tell The New Yorker that the SUV craze is “a strange madness of crowds.” Trying to fight it has earned them a vast surplus of Stonyfield yogurt lids.

One of public TV’s best loved dramas has been remade for broadcast on A&E: Ursula LeGuin’s Lathe of Heaven. Starring this time around: James Caan, Lukas Haas, Lisa Bonet and David Strathairn. The director is Philip Haas (Angels & Insects) and the composer is (who else?) Angelo Badalamenti. Sept. 8, 8 p.m. WNET’s production last played on PBS two years ago, Current reported.

The FCC again blocked attempts by Central Wyoming College and the Idaho Board of Education to apply for licenses on spectrum to be auctioned off this week, according to Broadcasting & Cable magazine’s website. Both noncomms argued they were entitled to apply for the permits without participating in the auction.

Maryland Public TV announced lay-offs and salary cuts for top executives and rank-and-file employees. Lost underwriting revenue for the revamped Wall Street Week with Fortune contributed to the state network’s projected $2.1 million revenue shortfall.

Fast Company magazine sends a love letter to HBO and its new c.e.o., Chris Albrecht, for raising the standard of quality in original programming while making piles of money. Its profit last year, $725 million, was equal to nearly half of public TV’s total budget. The Sopranos is only the start. See the article by Polly LaBarre in the September issue.

Business 2.0 profiles Chris Mandra, who has molded NPR’s online presence in his four years at the network.

Julia Child’s kitchen has been moved from Cambridge and reconstructed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in D.C., the Washington Post reported. It will be on display for two years. [Smithsonian’s kitchen page.]

“For the conflicted soap fan longing for a simulacrum of realism,” the British import “EastEnders is an addictive slice of heaven,” says John Dougan, TV critic of the cultural webzine PopMatters.

Britain’s Prince Andrew has fallen for Cynthia Gouw, a reporter and producer for KQED’s Pacific Time, reports the San Francisco Examiner.

Whoops: Click and Clack have three million yogurt lids to unload.

Will Robedee, g.m. of Houston’s KTRU-FM, protests the new royalty rates for streaming music in Radio World.

The Boston Globe bids farewell to WGBH exec Peter McGhee, who resigns this month. The outgoing v.p. of national programming is leaving because he’s disappointed with the way things have been going at PBS, the profile reports.